Chief Rabbi Kurt Wilhelm of Stockholm died today after a heart attack reportedly caused by disclosure last week of plans of a Swedish Nazi gang to kill all Swedish Jews. Dr. Wilhelm, who had been Chief Rabbi since 1948, was 65. The Nazis had repeatedly accused him of anti-Christian activities.
Born in Magdeburg, Germany, Dr. Wilhelm was ordained at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York and served as a rabbi in a number of German cities prior to the Nazi regime. He emigrated to Palestine in 1935, serving as editor of the Schocken Publishing House in Jerusalem until 1948, when he settled in Stockholm.
The murder plans of the Nazis were found in documents uncovered by police in a recent raid in which seven of the Nazis were arrested. Police also seized two caches of arms. The documents included tape recordings of conversations between members of the Nazi gang and members of the Egyptian Embassy in Stockholm.
Experts here on neo-Nazi activities estimated today that the program of the Swedish Nazis involved outlays of around $200,000 a year. The experts said such funds were impossible to raise from members and that they were obtained from anonymous industrialists.
The leader of the Nazis, Bjoern Lundahl, who is under arrest facing charges of high treason, admitted today he had written some of the documents but insisted he had not signed others on which his name appeared.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
